Israel strikes kill people ‘during Gaza Strip funeral’
Gaza health officials said that at least eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike and 20 Palestinians were injured in Nuseyrat, in the central Gaza Strip, as they attended a funeral for a person killed in another Israeli attack on the area earlier in the day.
Those deaths, along with at least three Palestinians killed in separate Israeli air strikes elsewhere in the region, brought Friday’s death toll to at least 12, medics said.
Awda Hospital in the Nuseyrat refugee camp said seven people were killed in the attack and that people were shot at the funeral of a Palestinian killed in the attack early on Friday.
In the previous attack that killed two people, the Israeli army announced that it targeted a Hamas militant.
Hamas condemned the Nuseyrat attack as a “brutal massacre” of mourners and called on mediators as well as the United Nations to take action to stop Israeli attacks on the site.
Asked about the attack in Nuseyrat, the Israeli army said that it hit a cell belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group, which dominates parts of the Gaza Strip together with Hamas.
The army said it was “aware of allegations that many people unrelated to the incident were harmed as a result of the attack.”
Residents in the area east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip said Israeli forces used drones to broadcast voice messages ordering them to leave their homes, forcing some families to flee for safety.
The deaths add to the number of more than 1,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed in Israeli attacks since a ceasefire reached between Israel and Hamas militants came into force in October, according to Gaza health officials.
Hamas generally does not disclose its losses.
The ceasefire stopped major clashes but did not stop Israel’s almost daily attacks.
Israel says it is targeting militants.
During the same period, four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants in the Gaza Strip.
Conflict monitor ACLED, a US-based research group that tracks political violence, said Israeli airstrikes against Hamas and other militants rose to more than 40 in June, the highest monthly total since the ceasefire.
It was stated that other attacks hit people near the line separating the two sides, and civilians, including women and children, were killed and injured.
According to Israeli records, the war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
More than 73,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s subsequent offensive, according to Gaza health officials.
Nearly all of the Gaza Strip’s two million people now live on a small strip of land along the coast, mostly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings under Hamas control.
with AP
